The Pair in the Warehouse
by SplishySplash
Summary: Agent Perotta called Doctor Brennan for a consultation and they get into some trouble, who do they call for help and does he make it in time?


**Title: Pair in the Warehouse**

**Author: SplishySplash, Ihave207Bones**

**Pairing: B/B**

**Spoilers: Fire in the Ice, Hero in the Hold, Princess & the Pear (anything with Agent Peyton Perotta)**

**Rating: K+/T (mild Language)**

**Summary: Agent Perotta contacts Brennan for a consultation and ends up in some trouble and who do they call for help? **

*

Booth walked into the Jeffersonian with his hands dug deep into his pockets with the intent of seeing his partner before he had to go into his own office. He had her routine down to an art, making his way to her office where she would usually be responding to emails, but frowned slightly to see that it was still dark. He looked up on the platform only to see Cam sitting on a stool writing something.

Booth slid his card into the reader and walked up to the pathologist. "Have you seen Bones?"

Cam looked up with a smile on her face. "Good morning to you too, Seeley." She responded.

"Good morning, Camille. Have you seen Bones this morning?" He asked.

Cam closed her binder and placed the pen on top, giving the man her full attention. "I haven't seen her this morning," she said. He looked to his watch and frowned as in relayed that it was almost nine and the anthropologist hadn't been in yet. A cold feeling set in his stomach as Cam placed a reassuring hand on his forearm. "Give her a call, maybe she overslept."

Taking a deep breath, he pulled out his cell phone and pressed the speed dial before holding it to his ear. He leaned against the table and Cam returned to her paperwork.

She answered the phone and Booth smiled. "Wakey, wakey Bones." He said lightly as he walked back to her office to allow Cam to do her work.

"I am awake, Booth." She answered, her voice laced with annoyance and relief.

"Oh? Then where are you?" He sat in her chair and cringed as it protested loudly. He thought she had fixed that and made a note to mention it to Cam. "No one has seen you all morning." It was an exaggeration, but she didn't have to know.

"I'm at the warehouse district." She answered almost distracted.

"Why are you at the warehouse district?" He asked, placing his feet on her desk making the chair squeal again.

"Agent Perotta called me." She said too politely, signaling that she was trying to play nicely with the woman for his sake. A flash of anger pulsed through him as he sat up straighter.

"She called you in for a case?" Booth asked, wondering where exactly Perotta got the idea that she could call HIS partner for a case.

"Not really, just a consultation." She said trying to ease his agitation. "I won't be long."

He sighed as his hand went to his forehead. "Do you want me to talk to her?"

"That's alright, I'm done here." She answered, knowing full well that he was going to talk to her when he saw her again. "The remains are human, if you will excuse me. . . ." Brennan fell quiet, her breathing started to pick up as a loud thud resonated in the background.

Booth remained quiet as he waited for her to say something and after a brutally long moment the thud turned in to yelling, but he couldn't make out what the voices were saying. "Bones, listen to me." He whispered, hoping not to call attention to her as he jumped to his feet, hurrying from her office to his SUV. "You need to stay where you are until I get there, don't move."

The SUV roared to life and he could hear the phone shift as his partner moved. "Don't hang up on me Bones." He said as he turned on the siren and sped from the parking lot. "Trust Temperance Brennan to find trouble in an abandoned warehouse." It had escaped his lips before he thought about it, hoping that she didn't hear it.

In the background a sneeze, a string of cussing and gunshots blared through the earpiece simultaneously. "What was that, Bones?" He asked and the line went dead. "Bones?" He hit the steering wheel with force.

He looked at his phone, hoping that his partner would call him back as he picked up his radio. "I need back up at the warehouse district, gun shots fired and Agent Perotta needs back up." He said into the radio darkly as he sped through the crowded city.

*~*

Brennan stopped her car in the normally abandoned parking lot of a warehouse in the northern most part of Washington D.C. next to the FBI standard issue Ford Focus and turned the engine off. Climbing out of her car, a sigh escaped her lips as she reached her bag that rested in the back seat and she neared the entrance only to be met by the tall blonde FBI agent.

"Thank you for coming Doctor Brennan. . ." Said Agent Peyton Perotta with a smile on her face as she led her through the door to what used to be a reception area, covered in dust and grime.

"Of course." She said, shouldering the bag, following the woman to a stairwell and stopped before climbing up the stairs. "Did you call Booth?"

Perotta stopped and placed her hands on the railing, a frown falling on her face knowing that the anthropologist wouldn't be happy with her answer. "No, I didn't call him." She said, trying to hold strong. "A set of remains was found and I just need to know if they are human before we an investigation can start."

Brennan bit her lip as a flash of annoyance crossed her features. "I don't appreciate being called in like this Agent Perotta, I only work with Agent Booth." She said with a brow raised, a slow breath escaping her lips, but the curiosity got the best of her.

"I apologize Doctor Brennan. . ." The agent said and was interrupted by the anthropologist.

"I will do it because I am already here, but it will not happen again." She said firmly, folding her arms across her chest. Her dislike for the woman was evident in the way she stood and her icy glare made the woman even more terrifying, but Perotta bit her lip and chose her words as delicately as the words chosen for the bible.

A fake smile crossed Perotta's lips. "Of course, thank you Doctor Brennan." She repeated and led the way up the stairs.

Brennan followed her stair after stair until they reached the top floor and taking note of the state of the warehouse as they reached a large door. Perotta pushed it open and she stepped through to a very large room that was lined with machines covered with white linens and rows of tables in the center. Brennan sneezed as she was greeted with years worth of dust that had collected and the lack of ventilation. "What is this place?" She asked after a long silence.

"It was a textile factory back in the late eighties and they specialized in making sails for sailboats until they went under in ninety-six. This floor in particular hasn't been used since then, but the rest of the building was leased to some sort of printing company until that too went under in two thousand and five." Perotta explained as they crossed the dust laden floor, Brennan noted the multiple foot prints that were imprinted in the dust and only a few looked recent.

"How were the remains found?" Brennan asked.

"Couple of street kids was wandering in here and found them last night, hoping to get some sort of reward." Perotta answered, Brennan nodded in understanding as they reached the opened machine with the white hue of bones glowing as the sun poked through a dirty window.

Before she approached the bones, she frowned and looked around the room again with the feeling that something was missing. She shrugged the bad feeling away, promising herself to give Perotta her answer and leave. She placed the latex gloves on her hands before stepping closer the machine to take a closer look.

The agent shuffled silently from behind her, but a sound from the distance caught her attention. "Did you hear that?" She asked, turning her attention from her task at hand.

Agent Perotta shook her head negatively and waited patiently for the assessment. "I didn't hear anything." She shrugged, taking a few steps to explore the area and stopping at a railing that gave way to a lower level. "I don't see anything either."

Brennan shrugged it off and looked at the remains only to be distracted by her cell phone ringing in her pocket. The first smile of the day formed on her face as she read the screen her partner's name. She cradled the phone to her ear and his voice rang through the phone. "Wakey, wakey Bones." He said in singsong.

"I am awake, Booth." She said with a smile and she brushed her hair out of her face.

"Oh? Then where are you?" He asked she could hear him sit down in her chair that had a distinct squeak that she had been meaning to get fixed. "No one has seen you all morning."

"I'm at the warehouse district." She answered picking up the longest bone.

Booth scoffed loudly as the squeak grew louder as he leaned back in the chair, she guessed as he put his feet on her desk. "Why are you at the warehouse district?"

She glared at Agent Perotta whose back was to her. "Agent Perotta called me." Brennan scowled and she could hear again the chair protest loudly and a thud on the ground.

"She called you for a case?" Booth asked, his voice lowering in pitch as he always did when he was annoyed.

Brennan sighed and moved the phone to the other ear to get a better look at the remains. "Not really, just a consultation. I won't be long." She said exasperated as Perotta turned to look at her expectantly.

"Would you like me to talk to her?" Booth asked.

"It's quite alright, I'm finished here." Brennan said pleasantly and faced the blond agent. "The remains are human, now if you excuse me. . ." The door was kicked open on the floor below followed frantic and angry voices. Both Perotta and Brennan leaned back to see who had busted in, Booth on the phone awaiting for a response.

". . . you son of a bitch! You promised me that this place was abandoned." Yelled one of the voices, shoving stacks of boxes causing them to crash onto the floor. "And yet there are cars in the god damn parking lot."

"They . . . they could be joggers." Cried the man, his hand shielding his face from an errant fist that hit the side of his head causing him to fall onto the ground. "There are joggers up and down the place."

Brennan cursed under her breath, grateful that Booth hadn't said anything only listening to what was going on around her. "Bones, listen to me." He whispered and she pressed her ear tighter to the ear piece. "You need to stay where you are until I get there, don't move."

The cowering man grunted from his position on the floor as one of the men kicked him in the side. "I think he has fulfilled his end of the job."Said the second man with a snarl as the safety of a gun was released.

"No please, I have wife and children. . ." Cried the man on the floor with a wet cough, blood most likely escaping from his lips and the safety was placed back on with a loud click. Perotta looked to Brennan and frowned, reaching to her side and pulled out her gun before looking over the edge.

"Bones, don't hang up on me." Booth said firmly from the phone. She could hear the familiar hum of his SUV start in the background and a quiet sigh escaped her lips. He mumbled something that she barely made out because of the blaring the siren in the background, something about trusting her to find trouble in an abandoned warehouse.

Brennan moved, placing her bag on the floor and stirring the dust around them causing Agent Perotta's nose to twitch and both of their faces fell. Perotta inhaled sharply as the dust particles floated around her and the tickling sensation went away leaving them both with a sigh of relief. But it didn't last long a sneeze escaped her lips and resonated through the empty building.

"What was that?" Asked one of the men in a growl and swiftly kicking the man on the floor.

"It was a bird, an owl maybe." The man cried.

"You lied to us, there is someone else here. Are you setting us up?" Asked the second man, his voice laced with malice.

"No, no, no I haven't set anything up. I just want to go home to my family." The man sobbed to where he could barely be understood from the four floors up. The deafening click of a gun safety was removed again before two shots brought the entire building into silence, the woman dropped to their knees and looked at each other before Brennan pointed to the ladder that was close to them.

Perotta was first to move and the floor board protested at the force weight. "Shit." She whispered as more gun shots rang out.

"God damn Billy, will you give it a rest." One of the men shouted over the rain of bullets that scattered over the room and in the direction of both of the women and the source of the sound. One of the bullets hit a metal rafter before lodging itself in the machine next to where Brennan's head had once been whereas another one buried itself in Perotta's leg and she let a strangled cry.

"I thought I heard something up there." Said the other voice with a maniacal laugh. "And hot damn from the sounds of it, I think I hit it let's go check it out." Their loud footsteps neared the stairwell that they had used to climb to the fourth floor.

"What was that, Bones?" Booth said into the phone.

She didn't answer him and turned off her phone, shoving it into her pocket as the adrenaline rushed through her veins, knowing that he would be pissed at her when he got there. Quickly she pulled off her over shirt and knelt down next to the bleeding woman, wrapping the shirt around her bleeding leg bringing a whimper. "Come on, we need to get out of here."

"Did you hear that?" Came Billy's breathless voice as they climbed the stairs. "That isn't a bird, unless it's one of them talking ones."

The steps came faster and Brennan stood up pulling the injured agent to her feet. "We need to go down that ladder." She whispered, supporting the added weight with an arm across her shoulder.

Perotta hissed as Brennan took a step towards the ladder. "You're kidding right?" She said through clenched teeth. She dragged the agent as fast as she could, cursing herself for slacking on going to the gym as she tried to keep quiet. The ladder was nearly twenty yards away, but it seemed to be longer as they struggled towards it.

When they finally reached it Perotta looked towards Brennan as if to question her sanity. "I will climb down first, you are going to have to lower yourself down and I will catch you." Brennan said in a whisper, taking the metal steps until she reached the third floor some twenty steps down. Perotta listened to what Brennan said by placing her uninjured foot on the first rung of the ladder, using it to support her weight. Her hands held the rusty bar, carefully and slowly lowering herself towards the anthropologist..

By the fourth step the door was kicked open. "Look!" Billy cried, pulling his gun from his side and pointing it at the woman.

"So we do have company." Said the other man almost amused before putting his hands on his hips and allowing the younger man to have his fun. He nodded towards him and he started shooting again, the bullets clinked as they hit random machinery and as the men got nearer, Billy's aim got better and one bullet slammed into the agent and caused her to fall.

Unbeknownst to the men on the top floor, Brennan caught the falling woman and they tumbled on the floor in a heap. Brennan slid out from underneath her and quickly assessed the damage as blood pooled out from her shoulder bringing a swift curse from the anthropologist. Surveying the room she looked for something to use as a bandage and frowned.

The room was as long as the one above it and completely filled with large wooden crates from the floor to ceiling, but nothing of value that she needed making her have to improvise by tearing off the excess of her shirt that wrapped around Perotta's leg and securing it to the wound. "It went all the way through." She mumbled as the footsteps on the floor above trotted towards the ladder. She stood up bring the injured woman with her. "Come on, we need to move now."

The shock was setting in and Perotta didn't argue as they wove through the crates towards the stairwell, but stopped with the men spoke again.

"Well chickadee, looks like we got ya." Billy's voice echoed through the room, bringing a laugh from the other man. "But where did you run off too?"

Brennan stopped moving only making it half way towards their destination and leaned Perotta against the concrete wall, hidden behind the large crates. She reached into Perotta's jacked and pulled out her gun and the agent protested. "I read in your file that you aren't supposed to have a gun." She whispered, weakly trying to get the gun.

"Now is not the time for this argument, I think under these circumstances it will be alright." Brennan hissed before peering around the box to see the location of the men that were standing some fifteen feet away.

"Now come on chickadee." Billy called out, his shoes squeaking loudly as they neared the hiding women and walked passed them.

A cell phone rang from the pocket of the nameless man and he quickly answered it. "Yes, he didn't pull through for us, but we have run in to a slight problem that we are taking care of." He said into the phone and chuckled slightly. "If you would like to come in, bring your friends in here too."

Billy fidgeted and kicked a pile of crates causing the women to jump in surprise as the contents of the top box surrounded them. "Better hurry, Billy is getting antsy." The door at the bottom floor opened and more footsteps entered the building.. "We are on the third floor . . . we saw some trespassers that need to be taken care of. . ." His conversation became for sporadic as he lost interest only to hang up his phone without ending the conversation.

Brennan let out the breath she was holding as the nameless man stood next to her took a few steps away from where she was hiding. She turned back and looked at the injured woman, who had gotten paler as the shock started to set in, Brennan crawled back over to her and shook her awake. "Don't fall asleep." She whispered firmly.

Before she could respond the crate near them bumped as Billy kicked it towards them. "We don't have time for this, I'm going to meet the others and have them come here to help." The nameless man said opening the door and Billy grunted in acknowledgment.

"Come on chickadee, I just want to play." Said Billy turning to cross the room opposite of the woman and Brennan used that to her advantage. She grabbed a wrench that had been displaced from the crate and got to her feet, creeping across the room in the stealth she had learned from her years in martial arts.

Raising her arms above her head as the floor creaked underneath her causing him to turn and face her, her reflexes were faster and she used the heavy wrench to collide into his skull with only a look of surprise on his face before he fell to the floor in an unconscious heap. She pocketed his weapon and looked for something to bind him together and to her luck the crate that was knocked over had an extension cord that had fallen out of it.

It didn't take long for her to tie Billy up and hide his limp body before she returned to Perotta. "Did you kill him?" She asked as Brennan helped her to her feet as they headed towards the stairwell.

"I don't think so." Brennan answered breathlessly. The steps up the stairwell caused her to groan in frustration, but the metal ladder was closer. "This time you go first."

Perotta attempted to climb the ladder again as Brennan ran to the door and shoved an old metal chair in the door handle buy more time for their escape. As Brennan ran back to assist Perotta in climbing down the ladder, the door began to move as someone began to pull on the handle. "It's locked." Cried a voice.

"How can it be locked if I was just in there?" Yelled the nameless man who began to pound on the door. "Billy! Let us in for god sakes."

The agent made it to the next floor without incident and Brennan followed. The second floor had more space that the other two floors that they had already escaped because of the lack of machines and crates but had two rows of large white liquid containers in a line parallel to the railing and pipes snaked out in different directions from all sides of the containers. Brennan stopped for a moment to look for the best route to escape. "What did you say this place was?"

"They said it was some sort of printing company." Perotta said, almost confused.

"What the hell is that supposed to be?" Brennan asked.

"I don't know, but it looks rather new compared to the rest of the building." Perotta commented as a loud thud from the floor above caused them to quickly come up with a plan, there were two ladders in this room one of them was on the far end of the room and the other was across from them, hidden by the second row of containers.

Brennan made her decision as a voice roared through the building. "Go to the fourth floor and climb in, so help me god if he is having his way with them, he is going to lose something very precious." Bellowed the nameless man and footsteps ran up the flight of stairs. "You, go to the second floor and search down there."

The women made their way slowly until they had to step over a large pipe and Perotta tripped, letting out a quiet scream. Brennan fell also landing on her wrist and she hissed, before pushing it aside to help Perotta back to her feet.

The door jiggled from the end of the room and opened. Brennan made eye contact with the man at the door who froze momentarily before drawing his gun at her. She quickly pulled the gun from her jacket and pointed it at the man whose finger shifted nervously on the trigger of the gun. "You're not getting out of here alive." He said.

"Real funny," Answered Perotta weakly. "I am a federal agent with the FBI. . ."

"Now I'm really going to have to kill the both of you, can't have the FBI involved." He said, his voice growing confident and pulling the trigger, the bullet lodged itself in the large vat that was to the right of them.

Brennan took her shot and it landed in the man stomach, he stood for a moment before falling backwards on the floor. "What was that?" Rang a voice from the floor above them and they ran towards the stairwell, down the stairs to the second floor to see the man on the floor dead.

She was able to hide behind one of the large containers and they both sat down with their back to it in silence. "What do we do now?" Asked Perotta looking in the direction the ladder was.

"We get to the ladder." Brennan said, checking the clip for how many shots she had left and she got to her feet. "I will cover you until you get down and I will follow."

She peered around the corner to see that there were four men surrounding the one that was on the floor. "Okay bitch, we aren't playing anymore." One of them called out and it echoed though the building.

Brennan nodded to Perotta, signaling for her to move the man that was yelling took the first shot, followed by two others from the other men that stood around. Brennan peered around the vat and took a well place shot, landing squarely in the chest of one of the men before shooting three more times and each landing in the concrete behind them. The yelling man stepped closer, rage glowing in his face as he took shot after shot in the direction the offending bullets came from, whereas the second man collapsed on the floor and withered in pain as a bullet lodged itself in his arm.

The nameless man ran through the door. "Stop!" He cried, his arms waving quickly and the yelling man stopped, long enough to switch his empty clip. "Don't hit the cylinders! They will catch on fire faster than a forest in august."

The distraction was enough for Brennan to switch to Perotta's unused gun and began firing back. The bullet landed in the yelling mans shoulder, but he didn't seem fazed by it as he kept shooting. It wasn't long until the men searching the other floor wandered into the room and began shooting, while the nameless man paced in the back chanting for them to not hit the white containers.

The bullets in the gun were emptying quickly and Brennan turned to see Perotta's progress, seeing her blond hair disappear to the floor below, it was her turn to figure out how to get out off of the floor. She quickly looked around the room and noticed a pipe that hung over the men, she hoped it would either fall on top of them long enough for her to get down the steps or catch fire like the containers would. She acted quickly and shot the pipe, but nothing happened except a liquid substance began to leak slowly from it and landing on the dead body.

"Fuck, we need to get out of here before the place blows up." Shouted the nameless man, two of the men started to back up slowly, but the yelling man was determined and shot again, hitting the container and more of the liquid start to pool around Brennan.

Brennan's eyes widened she turned on her heels and ran towards the ladder and quickly started to descend the steps. The yelling man smiled as he watched and pointed the gun at her and fired. She let go of the ladder and fell to the floor with a thud as the room upstairs lit up brightly, whatever liquid was in the containers had caught fire as promised followed by frantic screams and footsteps towards the stairwell.

Brennan laid on the floor, having landed directly on her back with the breath knocked out of her. Perotta crawled over slowly and shook her, fearing that she had lost consciousness. "Doctor Brennan?" She said.

"I'm okay." She said breathlessly and slowly rolled over, her body ached but the reception area was within sight and that motivated her to sit up straight. "I think my wrist is broken." She got to her feet and turned to pull Perotta up as the fire began to move upwards to the higher levels and the floors began to give way.

The floor that they were on was also beginning to fill with smoke and she pulled the agent into a sitting position waiting for her energy to build up in order to get her to her feet. A beam not far from them cracked and the floor moaned loudly with weight of all the pipes, containers and crates that was on the second floor. The adrenaline pushed through her as she stood up, pulling Perotta with her. "Just leave me, Doctor Brennan." She cried loudly in pain. "Save yourself."

"I'm not leaving you in here, Agent Perotta." Brennan yelled over the roaring flames that were beginning to build around them as she walked slowly towards the door, the bright sun light through the open reception door, guiding them through the thick smoke and debris.

She was practically dragging the injured agent when the second floor collapsed behind them and the force of the impact made Brennan lose her balance. "I'm sorry I got you into this mess, but please Doctor Brennan, I'm just slowing you down. . ."

Brennan forced herself back to her feet, her eyes watering and stinging from the thick smoke. "You can apologize when we are out of here." She yelled loudly, the door was only ten yards away.

The wailing of the burning building hisses, signaling that the other floors were about to give way was enough to push Brennan to move faster as the sun was pointing to freedom. It was the when the wailing stopped and the sound of roaring thunder that the feeling in her stomach dropped as the top two floors gave way and began crashing down to the ground.

*~*

As Booth reached the warehouse district he was followed by hoards of deafening sirens behind him and he stopped his car in the first parking lot. He was greeted by many agents he had never met before and they were all looking for some sort of clue as to where one of their own was in trouble.

Deputy Director Cullen walked over to Booth and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Which one is she in?" He asked carefully.

"Doctor Brennan didn't say." Booth said folding his arms, looking for an anomaly that said that his partner was there.

"This is going to be a needle in a hay stack, but we will find her." He said encouragingly before turning to the agents that awaited their orders. The orders were simple, split up and find the missing women. Be aware of armed suspects and don't go in without back up.

Booth turned to his SUV when someone yelled out. "Look that warehouse is on fire." Booths eyes scanned to one of the taller buildings three rows away from where they were and got back into his SUV, driving furiously to the smoking exhaling building.

The worried feeling doubled when he noticed Brennan's silver sports car sitting next to an FBI issued Focus in the parking lot. Booth got on the radio and pulled into the parking lot. "We need fire trucks and an ambulance they are in the burning one." He said, his voice trying to hide the panic that was building inside of him.

He got out of his vehicle and was prepared to run when two agents held him back. "No! It's too dangerous." One called over the sirens that were heading towards them.

Booth struggled against the two men, who were the same size as him until the adrenaline pushed through him and he was able to free himself. He ran towards the building as it began to fall towards the ground. "BONES!" He screamed frantically.

He froze in shock and a hand came to his shoulder, trying to support the man. He didn't know whose hand was on his shoulder, but he tensed as he saw something move towards them from the smoke.

It was his partner with the arm of Agent Perotta around her shoulders walking slowly for them. Booth took off at a sprint to his partner and was followed by EMT's and firefighters..

Booth reached them first and pulled Brennan into an awkward one armed hug, which was corrected when the barely conscious woman was taken from Brennan by the EMT's and Booth was able to pull her into a proper hug. "Thank god." He said into her hair that smelled strongly of fire.

He pulled back slightly to assess her injuries only to gain a relieved laugh from the woman. "I'm okay Booth." She said, her eyes glowing with moisture and spilling down her dirty cheek.

"That's not going to get you out of going to the hospital." He said with a relieved chuckle, pulling her into his arms again and holding her tightly.

She relished his embrace for a moment longer before she spoke. "It was worth a try." She said with a bright smile.

Booth cupped her cheeks and pressed his lips to hers in a slow and reassuring kiss. When she responded his arm went around her shoulders, encouraging her head to fall into the crook of his arm as her good arm went around his waist. When his tongue flicked over her raw lips she allowed him entrance as his other hand went to her hair that was gritty from the falling building. When oxygen became a necessity for the anthropologist she broke the kiss and rested her forehead onto his chest as he buried himself into her shoulder and held her tightly as the paramedics, firefighters and agents fussed around them trying to control the scene.

It wasn't until someone from behind cleared their throat that they released their embrace to glare at the older paramedic that had interrupted. "I'm sorry, but we need to treat you." The man said and Booth nodded in agreement as they followed the old man to the empty ambulance, the other ambulance that carried the agent sped off into the distance towards the Washington Memorial Hospital.

Upon sitting on the bed an errant oxygen mask made its way towards her face as she was encouraged to lay on the bed."Alright does anything hurt?" asked the old man, taking a pen light and checking for pupil response.

She flinched at his cold hands on her raw skin but nodded. "I think I broke some of my metacarpals." She said, Booth noticing that she cradled it to her body. He quickly figured that it had to have been her wrist that she was complaining about, feeling slightly proud that he remembered it from all the times he had heard her say it.

It wasn't long until Booth handed his keys to another agent and climbed into the ambulance and grasping Brennan's uninjured hand tightly as they headed in the same direction as Perotta.

*~*

Five hours, a hard plaster cast and smoke inhalation therapy later Brennan was ready to change from the cotton hospital gown to a clean pair of clothes that was brought by her friends and go home. The doctor spoke of the precautions that were needed with her arm and if she still felt out of breath tomorrow to come back before she was able to change and fill out the discharge paperwork.

Ever the gentleman, Booth got up and exited the room to give her some privacy while she changed. Shutting the door lightly he scanned down the hall, hoping to find Agent Perotta before he left. He asked a couple of nurses and was directed to the room across from the nurse's station and he tapped lightly on the door.

"Come in." Perotta said weakly and he walked in the already opened door. The blond laid on the back with a nasal canula coming from her nose, her hair greasy and flowed down the back and she was surrounded by flowers of every type and color.

"Aren't you the popular kid?" Booth said sarcastically and walked to her bedside with his arms folded and a scowl on his face. "When is your surgery?"

"Tonight." She answered simply. "They were able to remove the bullet from my shoulder in the ER, but they need to repair the muscle. The other bullet only grazed my leg."

"Why don't we cut with the small talk and you tell me why you are here." She said, to the point like she always was. Her tone was sharp and was prepared to argue with the man her side of the story.

Booth took a deep breath before he spoke. "You are never to call her again for a case. If you need her expertise on something, you will go through me and only me."Booth said dangerously low and quiet. "I don't know what the hell you were thinking, Agent Perotta. Both of you could've been killed, you are lucky that she only broke her wrist while she was trying to get you out of there and you were lucky that you were hit with clean shots and the Bones is such a quick thinker because you surely would've bleed to death. It was such a rookie mistake and you should've known better than to enter an abandoned building without proper . . ."

Perotta sighed and looked at her hands, feeling guilty that she did put the woman in an unnecessary risk. She was about to retort, but held her tongue. "I'm sorry Agent Booth. It was completely my fault that this happened I didn't take the necessary precautions before I entered the building and put Doctor Brennan in danger."

Before Booth could launch an entire speech about protocol and how the mistakes could've cost him his partner's life, his partner had walked over to the nurse's station and started to fill out the paperwork to be discharged and not noticing the man in the room behind her.

He took a deep breath and felt the anger drain, looking back at the woman in the bed again. "We will deal with this when you get back to work." And he turned on his heels and walked to the anthropologist and the scowl turned to a smile before he pressed his lips to her temple. "You're obviously not ambidextrous."

She turned and smiled at him before tossing the pen at him. "No I'm not." She answered as he began to fill out the rest of the form. "Only three percent of the world is truly ambidextrous."

"Well you better get used to using your left hand because you've got six weeks in that cast." Booth teased as he signed her name on the bottom line.

She groaned loudly. "I guess I have a reason to keep you around." She said reading over the discharge papers. "But Angela is going to forge my signature, because you don't do a very good job at it."

He laughed loudly before kissing her deeply and when the broke apart he took her hand, leading her out of the hospital and to his SUV that another agent had dropped off. "Only because your signature is really loopy and girly, not like any doctor I've ever seen." He teased.

"It's because I'm not a medical doctor and I don't have to worry about people stealing prescription pads."She argued. "And it's not girly."

Booth smiled as he opened the door for her. "I think you deserve some pie." He changed the subject as he shut her door and walked around to his own and climbed in. "And it is girly."

She rolled her eyes and leaned back against the headrest. "I don't like pie."

"Well I want some pie and you can have whatever you want, my treat." He answered starting the car and pulling away from the hospital. "Then after that we are going to go to your apartment and you are going to get some rest." She groaned again and he chuckled softly as the fell into a comfortable silence save for the radio singing softly through the speakers.

*~*

Perotta watched as Brennan turned and smiled at him, not noticing her in the room that Booth had just vacated. Forlornly, she watched as he pressed his lips to her temple and took the pen that she had tossed at him turning his attention to the paper she was filling out and started writing quickly.

A small smile formed on the agent's lips as she witnessed Booth kissing his partner in a more than professional manner. Despite having been yelled at by the man when she was under the influence of pain medication, she was still happy that he was able to find light of the situation even though he was going to tear her apart when she got back to work.

The pair walked away without a glance at her hand in hand with a lighter step as they headed towards the exit. Perotta sighed and allowed herself to fall in a drug induced slumber without any guilt on her shoulders, knowing that Doctor Brennan was going to be well taken care of as was Booth and maybe she could keep him from sacrificing her the lions.


End file.
